Medical Gender Selection

Certain genetic conditions can be passed on to your child through the X or Y chromosomes, which are the chromosomes that determine the sex of the child. Advances in genetic screening and diagnosis make gender selection for medical reasons possible at our New York fertility center.

There are over 500 sex-linked genetic diseases, some are addressed by medical gender selection

A sex-linked disorder can occur when there are deviations in the X and Y chromosomes. An example of this type of disease is Turner syndrome, which affects females. Turner syndrome occurs when part or all of the X chromosome is missing, and it can cause developmental problems and learning disabilities, as well as medical issues such as heart problems and infertility.

In the case of Turner syndrome, medical gender selection would allow a parent(s), at-risk for having a child with Turner syndrome, to select only male embryos to avoid passing this serious condition on to a female child.

Other disorders include X-linked recessive diseases, which almost exclusively occur in the male population. Examples of X-linked diseases include:

Hemophilia

Fragile X syndrome

Duchenne muscular dystrophy

For these and other X-linked recessive diseases, the parent(s) could elect to transfer female embryos exclusively to avoid passing these problems on to a male child.

Our New York fertility center performs PGS and IVF for medical gender selection

PGS, or preimplantation genetic screening, is combined with IVF for medical gender selection. During IVF, the eggs are retrieved and fertilized with sperm in our laboratory. The resulting embryos are screened using PGS to determine which embryos are male or female. This is when gender selection for medical reasons occurs—the embryologist selects the desired gender to transfer.

Combining PGS and IVF has nearly a 100% success rate at ensuring that the child of the desired gender will be born.

The American Society for Reproductive Medicine, or ASRM, considers gender selection for medical reasons to be ethically acceptable in order to “…prevent the transmission of serious genetic disease.”¹ Our New York fertility center is happy to be able to provide this medical service to our patients.

Our New York fertility center is on the cutting edge of preimplantation genetic screening and diagnosis

Our fertility specialist, Dr. Joel Batzofin, has the in-depth knowledge and expertise to provide medical gender selection, as well as other fertility treatments. We are always seeking to advance our knowledge and bring new techniques and treatments to our patients. Contact us today for an appointment.